Andrew M Brown is the Telegraph's obituaries editor.

Stephen Fry's most shameful secret: he can't write for toffee

David Sexton is among the most perceptive, and ruthless, of literary journalists. It is a rare pleasure to read his analysis of what's wrong with The Fry Chronicles, Stephen Fry's latest volume of memoirs. Sexton's thoroughness saves us from having to wade through the book's 425 pages for ourselves. (The piece was in yesterday's Evening Standard but I'm not sure they've put it on their website.)

The basic problem is that we want comedians to be funny, Sexton thinks, not to "expatiate on their hard work, their painful struggles and inner qualms" – which is what they like to do. To be sure, Fry has given pleasure to millions, and it's sad he thinks so badly of himself. "Nevertheless," says Sexton, "the way he keeps telling us outward triumph was accompanied by inner turmoil soon becomes unbearable." In fact, The Fry Chronicles is "tastelessly overwritten from start to finish" with Fry "spraying verbiage over every subject".

In case you don't believe him, Sexton offers plenty of examples. There's Fry's painful reliance on triplets, a "dire technique" that's "often mindlessly alliterative into the bargain". So, the book's second sentence reads: "If only I had it in me to be all fierce, fearless and forthright instead of forever sprinkling my discourse with pitiful retractions, apologies and prevarications." The very form of that sentence "helplessly reenacts the problem described", Sexton notes wearily.

And he makes an interesting point about the link between Fry's verbal incontinence and his love of new media – "more outlets, pipelines, conduits", as he calls them in the book. His compulsive effusiveness is perfectly suited to Twitter, Facebook and so on.

In some places – Mark Lawson on Radio Four's Front Row, for instance – Fry has been praised for his searing honesty. Sexton, on the other hand, thinks the book's waffly style is "ill-suited to telling the truth". It's difficult to think clearly – or know what you really mean – when you chuck words around as indiscriminately as Fry does.